Christmas 2001 - Stewart Coffin Design #182 by John Devost

Eric Fuller (Rest in Peace) listed a run of these puzzles at CubicDissection that I made back in 2006!

I made these using 3/4” cubes with everything lacquered and triple buffed.

I’ve recently been revisiting some of Stewart’s tray designs, and this particular design has since been revised in 2018 so I decided to make a few copies, here’s Stewart’s description:

“It didn’t take long for puzzle fans to catch on to the 45-degree rotation, which has also been exploited by others, or even the less common 26.6 degrees of #177-A. So the next step was to change the angle again to arctan 1/3 or 18.4 degrees. I present this puzzle with apology because I prefer not to issue puzzles of this type that are extra difficult (believe it or not), and non-symmetrical as well. Friends usually expect the solutions of my puzzles of this type to be symmetrical, but this one isn’t. 

But it’s most vexing feature is that not a single one of the pieces rests 

comfortably by itself in a corner, or even along a side, so how do you begin? 

I made just a few of these during one holiday season (hence the name) as 

gifts to puzzle experts, who I hope will forgive this departure from what I 

consider the rules of the game.

The original Christmas has two design flaws- a piece duplicated and a 

symmetrical piece. Both flaws have been corrected in this revised 2018 

version. Both versions have only one solution.”

Pieces:  Zebrawood & Benge

Frame:  Sapele

Slipfeathers: Holly

Bottom:  Tigerwood/Red Zebrawood/Canarywood

Shipping is as follows: 

 - Canadian tracked shipping is included

 - USA is $20  includes tracking

 - International is $20 without tracking and $40 with tracking

 - I can also combine puzzles, however shipping cost will need to be determined.

Please note that funds are in US Dollars